Quilting came to me out of the blue. My brother George has been my hero since Mom told me she was having a baby. I thought he was the only one with artistic talent. He makes his living as a scenic artist, and can sculpt, draw or paint anything. I thought that simple sewing was the extent of my capability.

After my brother made my wedding so beautiful, I wanted to make him a magnificent gift. For months, I sought out what I could possibly do. Then I saw the cover of Watercolor Quilts by Pat Maixner Magaret. I’d never seen anything like it. My grandmother’s quilts were made with such love and ability, but somehow that quilting never captured my interest. Watercolor quilts, however, were different.

It happened that as I bought the book, the fabric store was having a watercolor quilting class. As I went to register the clerk was asked, “How many quilts have you done?” I told her that this would be my first. She smiled sweetly and told me that this really was an advanced class. I kindly told her that I was signing up anyway. We were all asked to find a quilt in the book to duplicate, something not over 36 x 36 inches. I pulled out my original sketch for a 100 x 100 inch king size quilt. When she saw the drawing with a rainbow, she smiled and told that the emphasis is from light to dark, that my plans of a rainbow were really in excess of what I should expect to learn. But there was just one other thing. I didn’t want to use all floral prints. I wanted to use as many novelty fabrics as I could find. In some sweet way she tried to tell me that it couldn’t be done. I didn’t get much done in the eight weeks of class, but if nothing else, I picked up the determination that I was going to make it happen Somehow the challenge to my intellectual skills opened up imagination and creativity thought nonexistent. When he saw George’s quilt, my father said, “There’s more than one artist in the family.” That set the path.

For the next ten years, I collected fabrics so that I’d have enough to make quilts solely of novelty prints. Inspired from hundreds of books over the years, I developed the format of using watercolor and stained glass techniques with the use of novelty prints for the mosaic.

The art of quilting has become my passion, indulged in almost every day. The works require 700 to 1000 hours each. There is just no way to speed it up. My gallery may grow slowly, but it will expand one piece at a time. My greatest inspiration is the people for whom the quilts are made. All of the designs are original. I collect fabrics for a specific quilt to capture the uniqueness of the individual in the prints, as well as color choices. I look for fabrics that show favorite foods, animals, cartoon characters, collectibles, places, hobbies, holidays, etc. I am blessed to have wonderful people in my life, and I hope that their quilts reflect that.